Coromandel - A Personal History of South India (Charles Allen, 2017)

(370 pages)

Looking for materials focused on southern India - this is a new book by an author not previously encountered.

He goes through quite a bit of history - my background is still too weak to follow along effectively.  I learn that Buddhism and Jainism were forces - including in the south - before Hinduism pretty much displaced them.  (Though he mentions the Jain temple we visited, with a photo-with-fig-leaf.)

Ashoka and his rock edicts are discovered in the south.  Kalinga - war elephant story.  Roman traders (some coin hordes are found) - purchased spices with coins, not having goods that the Indians were interested in trading for.  Coins apparently typically melted into jewelry etc. since not really useful as such.

Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu.  This part remains confusing - Lord Vishnu with 10 avatars, etc.

Discussion of arrival of Europeans.

The author calls it a "personal history" because he has personal connections to India and isn't trying to be comprehensive - it bounces around quite a bit, I will keep this at hand and page through it some more.

The Story of the Jews - Belonging - 1492-1900 (Simon Schama, 2017)

(692 pages)

Second volume of a series; first volume is noted here.  These are well worth reading.

The ability of "the Jews" (which I'll treat as a single category even as I learn a bit more about differences within the category) to stick to their religious principles - and thus their separateness - is amazing, unprecedented.  Even, or perhaps especially, in light of what that "separateness" has entailed over the centuries.

This volume picks up with 1492 - expulsion from Spain.  Amsterdam as a relative haven.  Others escape east.  "Conversos" are treated, or mistreated, with great suspicion in Iberia; some defy restrictions on movement, capital flight.  These are referred to by the author as "Sephardic" - tend to be more educated on balance.  I don't know the exact definitions; he uses "Ashkenazi" more in association with central/eastern European communities - tend to be shtetl types, less educated, less able (or willing) to assimilate.  But of course so many exceptions.

He mentions a community in Kerala (Cochin).  Traders, connections, everywhere.

Western Europe consistently uncongenial - will use Jews for finance but turn on them as needed.  Amsterdam an exception.  Areas in eastern Europe - Poland, Russia, Bohemia - welcome Jews (needing their population and their skills) and surprisingly often follow through on commitments to leave them alone (not always, even in the best (most tolerant) of times).  Population expansion in these areas - eastern Europe as a major Jewish population center, who would have predicted this in Old Testament times?

Enlightenment - hopes rise - many community leaders pursue assimilation in hopes of avoiding mistreatment.    So many restrictions on occupations, where to live.  Always allowed to practice medicine - utilitarian.  Enlightenment era beliefs that if these occupational and residential restrictions are lifted, Jews will be more "normal" members of the community.  But the old hatreds appear irrepressible.  Alsace/Lorraine (Dreyfus territory) - ugh. 

This volume takes us up to 1900 - in late 19th century, hatreds are escalating again, as are efforts to secure a homeland.  It's little wonder that the latter strategy was pursued.

An embarrassing history for Christianity in so many ways.

Eating Animals (Jonathan Safran Foer, 2009)

(267 pages)

Book club selection (via Rose; session held 2 December 2018).

Interesting writing about the modern ag/food industry - so much has changed!  Food incredibly cheap and plentiful.  But animal cruelty questions; hormones and antibiotics; climate effects. 

Regulatory capture as in any major industry.

The club discussion was interesting.  How far to go with empathy for the animals - who are headed to slaughter no matter what - effect on low-income folks if practices are changed?  How to quantify climate effect - supremely efficient food chain - is there a better alternative?

Author did a good job but occasionally strays into childish demonization of "profit."

Quite a bit of overlap with some of the themes from this book about Storm Lake, Iowa.  Confinement set-ups certainly have changed rural Iowa even in my lifetime.  And I beheaded a few chickens here and there without thinking twice about it.

Tribe - On Homecoming and Belonging (Sebastian Junger, 2016)

(136 pages)

Short; built atop a Vanity Fair article; thought it might be of interest as I try to be more thoughtful about group or tribe behavior.  Author served as a correspondent from several war zones - not military, but constantly around military and in combat areas.  PTSD.

Main thesis - he observes the closeness of soldiers - or even civilians in war zones (Sarajevo) - then he provides some historical examples (London during the Blitz) - the connectedness, how many feel these were the best times of their lives notwithstanding the horrible parts.  Suicide rates drop in these horrible situations, etc.  Then he focuses on evolution - thinking back over millennia - where humans evolved in small bands regularly dealing with common threats, again close connectedness - this is the normal, this is how we're wired.  Then he focuses on the atomization of modern society - wealthy sure, but loss of connectedness.  Examples like 9/11 - where there was a short-term sense of connection - but quickly dissipates.

Most of us will never be called upon to protect ourselves or our loved ones or our communities against an actual imminent threat - everything outsourced to military and police.  A good approach but author points out the immense change from the environment in which we evolved.  Discourages connectedness.

None of this is new, but he has an interesting and useful perspective.  We're not going back in time, so we need to consider how better to connect, and how to be more patient with the frustrations experienced by the disconnected.

He compares the experiences of WWII vets to the current crop - much dislikes "thank you for your service" platitudes, recognition at sporting events - he feels vets want to be re-integrated (especially in the job market), not to have their separateness emphasized.

Storm Lake - A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper (Art Cullen, 2018)

(317 pages)

Author is my brother-in-law - who won Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in April 2017 - obviously quite an achievement.  This leads to book opportunities with top publishing houses - they eventually settle on Viking (which the frontispiece tells me is an "imprint of Penguin Random House") i.e. a real deal.

The guy can write.

I cannot evaluate the book in any objective manner (of course I'm not a professional (or even amateur) reviewer anyway so who cares - I keep this website as a memory aid anyway).  Some reasons why an objective evaluation is impossible:

• There are quite a few family references interspersed throughout - I very much enjoy the way they are handled.  Especially the interactions with my dad - which are fairly significant to the exposition - Art captures him quite well!  These passages are highly interesting to me.

• Then there are all of the Iowa references, including many from the 1960s or 1970s - author's path has more overlap with mine than I had realized - again, highly interesting to me.

• I came to the book with a decent level of familiarity with Storm Lake's unique demographics and challenges (and opportunities) - so pretty well versed on that part (meaning I read through these pages pretty quickly).

For readers who pick this up "cold" - I expect there's quite a bit to learn via the Storm Lake story - this at a time when immigration issues are front and center - quite a few positive aspects here.  Also for this group of "cold" readers - I hope they can relate somewhat to the story elements revolving around the family.  Hard to know.

Useful discussions of the evolution of agriculture and resulting social changes.

Perhaps my main reaction:  deeply grateful that someone with actual writing skills has chronicled a few of the pieces of our family's story line.  That is highly valuable to me.

Art & Dolores have a lot to be proud of.

In the First Circle (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, written between 1955-1958; this translation 2009)

(741 pages)

Solzhenitsyn is amazing - a favorite.

First read this book almost 13 years ago in a version that Solzhenitsyn had self-censored in hopes of getting it published in the USSR - which didn't happen.  This - the full version - became available in English translation a few years ago.  Delightful re-read; the full version is an improvement (though I was thoroughly satisfied with the first version that I had read).

Not difficult to see why many compare his works to those of Dostoevsky - prolonged discussions of ethical or philosophical matters; stand-alone chapters; many characters interacting.

Solzhenitsyn so effective at weaving into the story the effects of the socialist system on persons from all walks of Russian life - not just the prisoners - returning veterans, stranded spouses (typically wives), the stress on the jailers and officials, Stalin's loneliness, etc.  Pretty much everything corrupted.

Innokenty's decision.  Lubyanka.

Zeks in the sharaska live so well compared to the camps (after all, it's only the First Circle! (yes it's a Dante allusion)) - but facing ethical decisions - typically the scientific projects involved devices used to imprison folks! - is it ethical to assist with this project - when succeeding at it might be the zek's only hope of ever being released from the gulag (with profound positive implications not just for the zek - but also for the stranded spouse and other family members)?  Returning to the camps if fail or refuse to cooperate?

Main character is Gleb Nerzhin (imprisoned mostly for having spent time as a POW in a German camp) - he faces this ethical issue.  As do Sologdin and Gerasimovich.  Gleb discussing ideas with various folks as he tries to find his way.  As the story progresses, Gleb interacts more and more with Spiridon - a peasant whose story line illustrates the ways that those folks lived through those times, for better or worse.  Some folk wisdom.

Excellent throughout but - as I felt in the first reading - the chapter where Gleb is visited by his spouse (Nadya) - is just a knockout, heartbreaking.  Solzhenitsyn knew about this, had experienced it.  (Following chapter - where Gerasimovich is visited by his spouse - also very fine.)

One of my favorite bloggers recently read this book for his first time, loved it, did a virtual book club on it - so I listened to a couple podcasts - I hadn't realized that Solzhenitsyn's personal background incorporated so many elements of this story.  What a life he led.

The letters from Dyrsin's wife.

Rubin - dedicated communist yet well-liked.

The "relationship" decisions faced by the prisoner and the spouse over so many years - continued marriage to a prisoner almost certainly preventing meaningful education or employment - and opportunities with others - ach.

Etc.  Wonderful - a gift to run across works like this.

The Mill on the Floss (George Eliot, 1860)

(544 pages)

I really liked this.  I'm continually impressed with George Eliot; it's time for another reading of Middlemarch (it's almost been 15 years).  At the moment, this one is my favorite of hers.  It's one of her earlier works.

Characters here are so well presented - all believable, all so well sketched and  developed (with enough surprises along the way).  There were enough characters to fill out the story, but few enough so that this kind of detailed exposition could happen.  [Only exception:  Stephen Guest felt odd but in the end I felt he fit the flow.  (Interesting that at book's end there is a short discussion of what apparently was a great deal of criticism taken by Eliot for the Guest character.)]

--Maggie Tulliver
--Tom Tulliver (Maggie's brother) (these are the two main characters)
--Their parents; Mr. Tulliver likes to go to law; he wants Tom to become educated; Tom's struggles with the clergyman-teacher.

--The Dodson sisters (Mrs. Tulliver was one of these) - esp. Glegg - the voicing on these was utterly uncanny.  And often hilarious.  Also their husbands.  Easy to understand that this was a world Eliot had lived in.

--Lucy Deane - cousin (daughter of one of the Dodson sisters).

--Stephen Guest.

--Lawyer Wakem; his son Philip.

--Bob Jakin - Tom's childhood friend, more of an acquaintance.

The story revolves around Maggie and Tom, but primarily around Maggie.  Realistic, flawed, wonderful character.

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America (Gilbert King, 2013)

(464 pages (including notes))

Book club selection (via CPG; session held 21 October 2018).

This was useful, timely.  Author builds the story around the efforts of Thurgood Marshall (and other NAACP members and supporters) to assist the "Groveland boys" - four blacks wrongfully accused in Florida.  With useful background about Marshall, the NAACP, its legal strategies, the environment in the South.  Florida as a dangerous, volatile state; the local sheriff here was a rather awful character.

It's amazing how recently all this happened; how much progress has been made; I think sometimes we lose sight of this given that plenty of stupid stuff continues.  Something about groups, or tribes, or however it's best described - seems unlikely that humans will ever entirely rise above these divisions.  But hopefully progress can continue.

Some of the details help someone like me, in some tiny way, imagine how it may have felt to be treated this way.  At one of the trials - black visitors at the courthouse eat lunch out on the lawn - guess what, every one of them had brought a paper bag lunch in the certainty that no restaurant would serve them.  This was "normal."

Florida not a cotton state; but once they master frozen orange concentrate there is a big need for workers - guess who was recruited, guess how they were treated.

Also - the risk to whites not toeing the line - including abusive behavior to someone named Mabel Norris Reese (initially a mostly unquestioning supporter of the local authorities but she changed over the years).  Your family, your business, your personal safety.   Examples in wartime, in religious settings, etc.

The extreme danger of sheriffs, police, the prosecutors, the judicial system - so much depends on integrity here.  Post 9/11 adulation isn't helping accountability.

The incredible courage of folks like Marshall (and other then-NAACP staffers and their supporters) - regularly encountering genuine physical danger - difficult to imagine.

Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam (Mark Bowden, 2017)

(608 pages (including notes))

We've thought very highly of Ken Burns's (fairly) recent Vietnam War series on PBS; this book had some of the same feeling, but focused on a single battle (though with plenty of helpful surrounding detail).  I liked it a great deal.

Hue as an important historical city in Vietnam - I had no idea - pretty far north in South Vietnam.  A citadel and "old city" portion, heavily fortified.  Cultural/historical significance, meaning US couldn't bomb it.

North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong meticulously plan to attack Hue as a featured element of Tet offensive - they realize they cannot hold it indefinitely, but believe they can make a real statement here.  And they definitely did.  Took over the citadel - thick walls, limited number of gates, defensive towers, moats - bigtime problems given that razing wasn't an option.

US planners and higher-ups tended to discount Tet in general, and discounted the situation in Hue in particular.  Meaning regular guys are sent into ridiculously dangerous situations due to higher-ups not comprehending, at least in the early going.  Author provides intimate descriptions of what can only be called raw courage - just amazing what these guys were doing - many of them truly "regular" draft fodder - many not particularly fired up to be there, but doing their jobs. 

Some of that reminded of this book - so much courage seems to be bound up with the guys close by.

North Vietnam with zero air power, limited firepower of any kind - necessitating quite a bit of courage and persistence - yet also incredible cruelty, ideological purification messes, etc.

Amazing degree of press access and honesty (and bravery - these folks were in the middle of things) - post-Vietnam I believe the military keeps much tighter control over the reporting, greatly sanitized.

Recommended.

The Tales of Chekhov (short story collection, late 19th century)

(620 pages)

Chekhov's reputation is so high that I've been looking around for collections of his short stories; bought this one on Amazon, it's a rather odd collection but nevertheless a fine introduction.

All I've previously read of Chekhov's work - this compilation of his longer stories.  I learn that he is mostly remembered for his short fiction (including items from this collection) and plays.

He must have been an entirely amazing fellow - medical practice, Sakhalin Island days, little things like that in addition to epic writing ability.

Recently saw a quote that seems apt - to the effect that the problem with short stories is that they are so difficult to remember.  That's certainly the case with this collection.  I genuinely looked forward to picking up the book every time I turned to it - that's typically the case, but ran at a deeper level with Chekhov's short stories, not sure why.  I'll stick with the usual explanation - "he sees us" - gently illuminating our foibles, and our wonderful-ness.

I much recall his ability to portray scenes in nature, or landscapes perhaps - the sun, especially when setting or rising; wind, specific birds offering sounds, clouds, bullfrogs, the scene changing as the sun moves, a hot day - this  is not important as his descriptions of his characters - but it helps make the stories entirely immersive.

Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy, 1878)

(275 pp)

I like this, though not as much as Hardy novels previously read (this one, and in particular this one).

Entirely set in village/rural/heath-country.  A countryside with which I'm not familiar, but I am pretty confident Hardy did an amazing job of describing - that part alone is captivating.

Diggory Venn is a "reddleman"; the book starts out as he assists Thomasin Yeobright (who had rejected his earlier marriage proposal); we meet her brother (Clym - who is the returning native), Damon Wildeve (proprietor of an inn), Eustacia Vye (thought perhaps to be a witch!), and various of their family members and the villagers.

The characters sort out their relationships.  I like that Hardy creates complex characters; no really bad ones, though the plot line is a little too tidy as it wraps up.

The Lost City of Z (David Grann, 2005)

(319 pages)

Book club selection (via Nick; session held 5 September 2018).

I like this genre.  But so far had only read about it in the context of the Nile (Alan Moorehead's White Nile and Blue Nile, biographies of Stanley and Livingstone, etc.

It was interesting to think about the differences - the Nile was impossibly difficult, but the Amazon seemed far worse. 

Another point of reference was Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World - a great story, and modeled to some extent on this adventure.

Story is built around a fellow named Percy Fawcett; he rattles around in British colonial outposts; like famous African explorers, he seems immune to the hardships.  Fawcett becomes convinced that the Amazon formerly supported large cities (or at least one large one), and works to raise funds, launch an expedition, and hope to find it.  Takes his son and his son's best friend on the final effort.

He disappears without a trace; various folks go looking for him (generally with awful results); the author also goes out into the Amazon, after a fashion. 

Built - The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures (Roma Agrawal, 2018)

(271 pages)

I saw several positive reviews so gave it a try.  Interesting but not compelling.

What the author is trying to do:  give non-engineering types enough basic information so that we can look at roads, bridges, buildings and think about some of the foundational principles involved in putting them up.  And it does have that effect, though I don't expect to retain much.

Interesting discussions about the incredible engineering and construction skills of the Romans. 

Didn't realize concrete was such a valuable product (mastered by the Romans, then their methods were lost for hundreds of years).

Pendulums atop tall buildings to offset swaying - who knew?

Interesting discussions of the Pantheon and Brunelleschi's dome.

Elevators can only travel about so far because the steel cables to move them become too heavy. Maybe that's why we had a stop-off on the way to the 80th floor of the Sears Tower back in the day?

The House of the Dead - Siberian Exile under the Tsars (Daniel Beer, 2017)

(378 pages)

While this overlapped with several other books (for example this one on the Decembrists - early exiles; Dosteovsky's exile here; Polish rebels in exile here; Solzenhitsyn here; Chekhov on Sakhalin Island), it was well worth reading - much additional information and perspective.

I hadn't realized the scope of exile in tsarist days.  In the early days - c. 1700 - it was a convenient way to get rid of political opposition - a few folks were sent far, far away.  Then the regime figured out that sending forced labor to Siberia might be a good way to exploit natural resources there (along with rehabilitating the exiles).  Then the regime started expanding the variety of offenses that gave rise to exile - a great way to get rid of undesirables.  But the system had very limited resources, and the numbers sent into exile simply overwhelmed it.  The goals were not achieved and, if anything, Siberian development was retarded.

For a long period, those exiled walked prodigious distances to their final destination -Tobolsk to the Nerchinsk silver mines was 3570 km (like walking from Madrid to St. Petersburg, or from Washington DC to Salt Lake City).  Lots of folks don't make it - limited accountability as exiles are handed off along the route.  (Compare Brits transporting folks to Australia - a single captain with a single medical officer on a single ship - survival rates improved dramatically once rules were put into place.)

Early arrivals sometimes found Siberia refreshing - people less beaten down than the serfs - but the flood of exiles and the constant exposure to doubtful types changed this over time.  Many political exiles who weren't particularly violent or dangerous - but many, many criminals who were.  A bad mix.

Often often no right of return - settle in Siberia after sentence, if survive - difficult.

As the 19th century proceeds and the numbers continue to increase - the Siberian experience produces flashpoints for resistance to absolutism.  This escalates into the early 20th century - many key figures in 1905 and 1917 were here.

Epilogue introduces how 1917 revolutionaries - ardent opponents of the exile system - adapted it for their own purposes after taking power.  With horrific efficiency.

The Forge of Christendom - The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West (Tom Holland, 2008)

(413 pp)

Had recently read this book by the same author - it focused on what I'm calling "late antiquity".  I don't think the current book is part of a series, but it does pretty much pick up fairly shortly after where the prior book left off.

Something I notice - the titles of these two books are rather sensational; fortunately the content is useful, measured.

Europe as a backward dump compared to Persia, Constantinople, Spain, Baghdad, etc.  Charlemagne (following on the achievements of Charles Martel - Tours 732) - tries to restore a Roman empire - centered in the north but with affirmation in the south (Italy). Doesn't last long.

The papacy as a weak institution - not recognized as having much authority over anything - based in a town that had fallen into disrepair.

But perhaps this helped in the long run - separating religious leadership from civil - compare caliph, Constantine in an earlier era - theocratic structures don't birth innovation or free thinking.

The papacy starts to rise from its weakness.  Pepin/Charlemagne looking for validation - turn to the beleaguered bishop of Rome.  Over a few centuries, the pope takes control over appointment of bishops etc.  Takes a run at interfering in civil authority situations - but not nearly enough power.  But the administrative papacy is on its way (the build-up eventually contributing to the Reformation).

Author reviews various of the European kings in the run up to 1000 AD  and the years thereafter - an atmosphere where the end of the world was considered a live possibility.  Christianity making incredible territorial strides - huge land masses in Poland, Russia (though it apes Constantinople rather than Rome), eastern German areas.

These kings aren't all that powerful in their domains - civil order not in good shape in Europe - power ceded to castle-builders (this was new).  Exploitation of peasants; widespread violence; for all its warts the church does fairly regularly make a stand for the oppressed - the Peace of God is enforced after a fashion.  But states starting to be identifiable. 

I underestimate how important and influential the Norsemen, or Vikings, or whatever were in this era - they were traveling pretty much everywhere in Europe and settled down in some form or fashion in many areas (including southern Italy, Normandy, Russia).

1066 - discussion of Hastings.

1095 - Constantinople under stress; pope calls the First Crusade.

The Star Machine (Jeanine Basinger, 2007)

(553 pages)

Divided into two parts - the first discusses the rise and workings of the Hollywood studio system's "star machine" - as at least the author calls it - the second part (which is 75% of the book) goes into extensive discussions of individual stars - I barely skimmed this second part.

But the first part was quite interesting.  PJ and I much enjoy movies of the 1930s and 1940s as well as some of the 1950s stuff.  She's much more knowledgeable than me - much better exposure to this content in her growing-up years - in Iowa we only saw an occasional late-night movie.  I think our tilt toward this era reduces our interest in more modern movies - we're neither used to, nor looking for, graphic content (whether violence or otherwise).  Anyway, we continue watching lots of shows from this era.

Hadn't appreciated the factory-level scope of the big studios - they handled everything - author states that MGM could put out a full-length movie every nine days (1950).  In addition to the big-name folks - fleets of people ready to be put into a scene on short notice.  In a world without TV, the demand for the product was there.

Hard work for the most-used actors - in addition to full days on the set, time required at night to memorize the next day's lines.  Discussions of the seven-year contract, lack of control by the actors, etc. - probably tough, but seems like "first world problem".

Finding a "type" for each star - then putting that star in a movie where he or she could play to type repeatedly - this is what the audience wanted (or had been trained to want).  I've mistakenly criticized some of those stars along the lines of "he can only play himself" - but that was exactly how the studio wanted me to feel.

Author spends a lot of time on Tyrone Power (and they put him on the book's cover) - considered so handsome that he was a little hard to typecast (plus he later (perhaps too much later) wanted more serious roles, which wouldn't then have played to his "type") - anyway we're interested in Tyrone because EMG was compared to him pretty relentlessly in the 1940s.

The New Sorrows of Young W. (Ulrich Plenzdorf, 1972)

(139 pages)

Author does a take-off on Goethe's famous work.  Set (and written) in GDR days, and the story line includes Communist Party-era frustrations and jokes.  Somewhat uses the epistolary method (a la Goethe's Werther), though with cassette tapes.

Protagonist at first seems an annoying rebel-without-a-cause type, but turns out to be delightfully self-aware and an attractive character.  The hopeless love interest is handled just fine - she plus husband did track the original story quite a bit - Charlotte is a nice character here (kindergarten teacher), the husband more wooden than in Goethe's version.

The plot didn't track the original story as much as I had expected, which was a plus.

[Minor item:  protagonist liked joking/punning/offering up aphorisms with his buddy Willi - including "a loaf always has two ends" - reminded of Pete Kirsch humor in 1970s Iowa (among his sayings - he would solemnly intone "everything has an end" if a serious subject was being discussed; then the punch line:  "but the sausage has two ends.")]

Recommended by Martine Lanners; I'd recommend it as well.

Ants Among Elephants - An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India (Sujatha Gidla, 2017)

(306 pages)

This very recent book received lots of attention; it was billed as a valuable resource to learn something about "caste" in India.  I'm interested in the topic, haven't read much about it; "caste" wasn't evident during our two weeks in India, for what little that vanishingly small sample size is worth.

Not clear to me how much the caste system differs from societal sorting elsewhere (whether based on race or income or whatever).  Perhaps the system runs deeper given the longer history and because there is a religious aspect?  Don't know.

Anyway, this book ends up not helping very much on what I think of as traditional "case" issues, at least for me.  It is an interesting story of a family - Christian - where the lead figure (the author's uncle) becomes a Communist agitator.  All this is taking place in the turmoil of the 1940s and following.  Many difficulties for the family are attributed to caste and I don't doubt that it mattered for them - but I think it's difficult or impossible to separate caste issues from difficulties arising from the family's Christian and Communist characteristics in India at that era.

The lead family figure (author's uncle) seemed to have the usual crusader personality - self-centered.

Helps explain why Subhas Chandra Bose would have had appeal - typically presented as some version of "evil" in Western histories due to his dalliance with Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, but desperation (probably too strong a word but you get the idea) to escape British domination was real in the 1940s.  Author's uncle supported him.

So all in all the book has value to me:  it gave a different look at 1947 and the surrounding years in an area of the country I seldom read about - Andra Pradesh, with some of the action in Telangana (adjacent in south/central India); describes trying to work up through the educational system for those starting out without any advantages; poverty as very real and difficult; earlier generations in this area as "forest people;" zamindars under British rule; etc.

The Dog Stars (Peter Heller, 2012)

(319 pages)

Book club selection (via Zach; session held 11 July 2018).

Book club seems to find its way to dystopian-future books somewhat regularly.  I liked this version well enough.  Spare writing style that worked well.

We don't receive a lot of explanation, but earth's population has been decimated by plague; plus it's getting much warmer/dryer.  A few survivors seem to be doing fine health-wise.  But life has become nasty, brutish, short - civil order entirely broken down - folks doing what they need to do, or want to do.  A few survivors still have the disease.

Protagonist and his dog live with an older gent who goes about the business of survival with enthusiasm and, perhaps, coldness.  Older gent is well-armed.  Protagonist has a plane and does some flying around (with dog) - for enjoyment, and for perimeter control; lost his wife to the plague, has remained relatively normal, doesn't quite know how to approach the world in which he finds himself.  They encounter some additional folks and the story develops.

For some reason this book brought home, in a different (and effective) way, a familiar concept - that civilization is really fragile; that the order that has taken so long and required so much effort will break down so quickly under stress.  Simultaneously reading a Tom Holland book about Europe circa 1000 A.D. - Roman order had broken down, in many areas it was a free-for-all - made me think of this book.

Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts, 2003)

(933 pages)

OK it's long - but the author has a pretty good knack for story-telling and the tale does tug the reader along.

What I liked best - and perhaps this is because our recent visit to India is fresh - he gives what seems to me to be a pretty faithful description of how India (Mumbai in this case) would appear to a Western visitor.  (He's from Australia or New Zealand and supposedly spent 10 years in Mumbai on the lam following a prison escape while serving time for armed robbery.)

Mentions so many little things that resonate with what we saw: mango lassi; "challo!"; stainless steel cup and plate; driver with jasmine garland in his car; the head wiggle (if that's the right term); serve meal on banana leaf; he visits a village that seldom had non-Indian visitors; Mumbai street scenes; many more.

He also spends a bunch of time describing Mumbai slums - which I've never seen anything like - this felt a little idealized, the slum seemed to have better governance than most municipalities.

Two things I didn't love:  #1 - not that he did them badly, but he tried to do too many things - offering philosophical observations, taking the plot in all sorts of directions, so many characters.  Perhaps many readers like this, but I would have preferred tighter.

#2:  author comes across as narcissistic - pretty much everyone he encounters just loves him, several literally want to adopt him; plus he is consistently awesome at dealing with pretty much any situation (and there are a lot of situations over this many pages).

But I kept turning pages and was entertained throughout.

I think the author genuinely loved his time in India, which is kind of neat.

The Noise of Time (Julian Barnes, 2016)

(201 pages)

Author is imagining what Shostakovich felt during decades of compromising with the Soviet power structure.  Shostakovich goes from promising early career, to a failed opera that garners criticism ("formalism!") seemingly from Stalin himself, to interrogation that seemingly could lead only to the camps, to varying levels of rehabilitation, to I guess what one could call becoming a useful idiot; he even joins the Party (surrendering his final hold-out).

Intersection of art and socialist politics (former must serve the latter).

The book received lots of favorable buzz but didn't do much for me.  This book gave a more interesting overview of Shostakovich's situation.  And Solzhenitsyn did a better job of conveying how the system created fear, in books such as this, or this, or this.  Also Grossman. 

Though I suppose this book differs a bit by its focus on the effect of the socialist system on a composer (artist).

Short read, but not particularly recommended.

In the Shadow of the Sword - The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World (Tom Holland, 2012)

(473 pages)

Author's writing style is unusual - often it feels like rambling, but in the end it feels conversational.  And informative.

This book - focused on what we can call late antiquity - has a couple main threads.  The common theme is the rise of Islam just as Rome (eastern half ) and Persia dramatically declined.

One of the threads:  how did these previously "backward" Arab folk become perhaps the most successful imperialists of all time?  And so incredibly quickly?  Why did the existing power structures collapse so rapidly?  As also discussed in this very useful work - some key reasons included (1) Rome (meaning Constantinople) and Persia were duking it out for a protracted period just prior to the time of the Prophet, to the detriment (and exhaustion) of both; (2) Rome (still meaning Constantinople) was burning resources trying to salvage something in Italy and elsewhere in the West; and (3) severe plague struck both Constantinople and Persia.  Suddenly - centuries of global power were beaten down.

And those factors do not belittle what the Arabs accomplished - the success is astonishing.  Author suggests that the idea that warriors dying in battle will achieve paradise was pretty much new with Islam - is that so?  I'm not aware of it on a wide scale previously, though certainly the idea appears later with the Crusaders.  (Not the key to Islam military success in those days anyway.)

Another thread - author explores the history of the Koran and its related religious texts - and goes into quite a bit of detail (some admittedly conjectural) that suggests, pretty strongly, that there is less direct connection between these documents and what may have been the Prophet's words than one might think.  For example - it appears that quite a lot of this material was written a couple centuries after the Prophet - with decided social/political considerations no doubt informing the writers.

He compares to the Old Testament - for a long time ascribed to Moses - but rigorous OT analysis reveals multiple authors, much of OT written much later, much of it speaking to specific contemporary political-social circumstances.  Sources that might permit similar analysis of Koran etc. generally have not been made available (or may not exist).  Intense self-criticism applied to the Bible; pretty much no culture of self-criticism as applied to Koran.

Oldest materials apparently don't emphasize the Prophet and raise questions about relative significance of Mecca/Medina; geographic sources seem to lie elsewhere (many farther north); it seems there was more borrowing of religious ideas than might be acknowledged if one wants to hold the position that everything was dictated to the Prophet by an angel (Gabriel as it turns out).  Discusses how Arabs were retained as mercenaries for both Roman and Persian, picking up lots of ideas (and serving in the north of the peninsula).  Jerusalem as an unlikely place of significance for Islam.

It's interesting to think about how religions get started - charismatic founder not writing things down; then the process of defining the religion plays out over a long period of time.  Christians fractious about theological details - Jesus certainly defined very little - but then with a Constantine - he can start ordering folks around - all of a sudden you have a Nicene Creed (325) - not that this ended the debates, but a structure was emerging after centuries.  Islam, Jews not really the same with this; author describes groups of scholars that develop materials (also centuries later!) and eventually gain control of the story (i.e. ultimately define the religion) - this is interesting if challenging to pin down.  Role of caliph in those days - combining temporal and spiritual leadership - confuses me.

Islam born in an atmosphere immediately permeated with local struggle/war and immediately expanding outward in an environment of conquest/war; and then needing to deal with handling subject peoples.  Christianity born with society's losers and core doctrines didn't get established from a war/conquest viewpoint; the warrior/imperial aspect really didn't launch until Constantine (312) (unfortunately it then seeped into the doctrinal).

And that is not to belittle the contents of the Koran or the Bible - these are pretty wonderful works no matter the provenance - it does suggest that it might be prudent to be a little less dogmatic on their contents!

Sometimes these "late antiquity" centuries feel rather lost . . . but there is lots of action . . . high points such as Constantine 312, Fall of Rome (in the west) 476, Hejira 622 . . . leading right to Tours 732 and Charlemagne 800 - and on it goes.

Being Mortal - Medicine and What Matters in the End (Atul Gawande, 2014)

(304 pages)

Book club selection (via PJ; session held 17 June 2018).

Author finds a highly useful way to talk about a group of related, oft-discussed topics that seldom (at least in my limited experience) receive this kind of clarifying approach.

Much of the book is based on what I'll call "case studies" of folks (often but not always elderly) facing extremely poor prognoses.  Including the author's father (also a physician).  This served to humanize the discussion without descending into just a series of anecdotes. 

Author goes through some of the background about the high expense and poor results on what has become conventional treatment for these folks - while putting them through debilitating side effects etc.  How many doctors are not well trained to explore alternatives; and financial incentives are misaligned - just keep doing procedures and prescribing medications.  Describes a way of thinking of doctors in three categories - paternalistic, informative, interpretive - this latter group is best prepared to engage in useful conversations with the patient and the patient's family members, rather than merely keeping up the interventions.

Author also goes through some of the history on hospitals; the rise of nursing homes; the rise of assisted care centers; hospice.

The most useful part of the book is the ideas about how (and when) to engage in critical discussions with the patient - questions such as "What are your goals? Where is your "line in the sand" when it comes to deciding how you want to live in your last weeks and months?" We need to be thinking and talking about this for the sake of our family members, and for our own sake.  With a more fulsome discussion - alternatives like hospice often start to make more sense.

This led to a quite interesting discussion during the actual "club" meeting - while most of our members are relatively young, everyone has faced up to this with relatives, many quite poignantly.

Recommended.

Death in Venice (1912) and Other Stories (Thomas Mann)

(313 pages)

Thomas Mann is one of my favorites, but this group of short stories didn't do much for me.

The centerpiece of this collection is Death in Venice - a story about which I've seen so many favorable references - I'm sure it's elegantly constructed and written, but the story line did nothing for me.  Aschenbach follows Tadzio around.

I preferred Tonio Kroger and Tristan.  Even Man and Dog:  An Idyll - Mann certainly could describe relationship between dog and master.

Read quite a bit of this on the planes to/fro India.

The Rise of Luxembourg - 1815-2015 - A Historical Portrait (Emile Haag, 2016)

(314 pages)

Christmas gift from Martine & Jose et al.  Seems like a timely read given that a path to Luxembourg citizenship has emerged for us.

Congress of Vienna - much discussed in this book - creates the Grand Duchy as a separate state in 1815 - but "independence" is difficult.

It was interesting to read this book pretty much in tandem with this history of Prussia.  Both discuss the events of the late 1860s - Bismarck defeats Austria in 1866 and is moving toward uniting Germany, more or less, under Prussian leadership - the Prussian book describes an 1867 "Luxembourg crisis" orchestrated by Bismarck (behind the scenes he encourages Napoleon III to annex Luxembourg but then leaks that very news, to predictable outrage); at the end of the process Bismark succeeds in uniting Germany but all the European powers agree (in 1867) that Luxembourg thenceforward would be an independent neutral state; war between Germany and France is avoided (or at least delayed for a few years).

That episode was part of Luxembourg consistently needing to navigate the boundary zone between France and Germany; the area seems to have been more directly influenced (if not controlled via economic zones and the like) by Germany, but felt a greater affinity with France (hard to measure, and perhaps this is because France seemed less threatening?)

Being in that boundary zone of course led to deep consequences in the two world wars.

Author reviews the roles of leading industrialists and statesmen; it also turns out that the leadership from the royals has mattered quite a bit - Grand Duchess Charlotte apparently quite important.  Also goes over developments in the fine arts, sports, etc.

As Europe centralized - via EEC and then EU - Luxembourg has benefited from being a small, less-threatening nation - important offices have been headquartered here from the beginning of this project.  No doubt it also took lots of skill to achieve this; multi-lingual population was helpful. 

Author gives some history on Letzebuergesch - used in daily life, legally recognized in 1984 - interesting how (as elsewhere in Europe) some of the unwritten, or at least less-written local languages were revived and treated more formally than in their heyday.

Lovely book; pictures, maps, etc. are very helpful.

American War (Omar El Akkad, 2017)

(413 pages)

Book club selection (via POC; session held 16 May 2018).

Post-apocalyptic; author is exploring how the United States might split up in the future; interestingly, or oddly, the split pretty much tracks the 19th century Civil War territory.  With fossil fuel usage as the main divisive factor.  (Earth has warmed considerably; coasts tend to be swamped; national capital has moved inland to Columbus, OH.)

An African empire (Bouzazi) keeps the southern "resistance" afloat.

Protagonist is Sarat Chestnut, but she's not much of a hero.  Pretty much brainwashed and weaponized by elders.  Spends time in a Gitmo-style camp, with waterboarding - in this story, yields zip in terms of usable intelligence. 

Northern violence/punitive-ness provokes continued Southern resistance.  Including germ warfare - two rounds of it - severe. 

Echoes of World War I - where Allies lose control of the narrative - the "losers" in this war (i.e. the South) are allowed to message - though story line ends before we see how this might have played out.

Iron Kingdom - The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947 (Christopher Clark, 2006)

(688 pages)

Rather lengthy, but always interesting.  Helpful in thinking about "Germany" (which always gets confusing).

Prussia starting as just one of many smaller states (if one of the larger ones) in what remains of the Holy Roman Empire.  Austria later emerges as single largest force within HRE.  Russia at varying strength over the years but often looming as a dominant force (with Poland in or out of existence as a buffer state).  France to the west; Napoleonic era creates continuous turmoil.

Prussia emerges as a not-quite-major player in 17th century while benefiting from a series of long-serving and quite competent rulers (Frederick William (the Great Elector (reigns 1640-88)); Frederick I; Frederick William I; Frederick II (the Great - reigns 1740-86).  Picks up territory via various devices.  Helps that Prussia is an Elector in the Holy Roman Empire selections.

Author points out how Prussia has been portrayed - primarily in the aftermath of World War I - as a monolithic enterprise - single-mindedly given to efficiency, militarism, ruthlessness; dominated by the eastern Junker aristocracy (deeply conservative); etc.  This author explains that things were much more complicated than this view (which had propaganda uses).

For one thing - there were significant divisions within Prussia, and between Prussia and the balance of Germany.  Prussia included Polish (Catholic) provinces plus western provinces that weren't all that well assimilated.  Bismark's 1860s defeat of Austria - followed by victory over France in 1870 - led to Prussian leadership across a mostly-combined Germany - but it was a very short time period up to 1914 - lots of variation persisted among the German areas.

I also see references that Humboldt's education system was designed to create state-serving drones - this description sounds much different.  Enlightenment concepts took root, all seems quite promising; but fundamental tension between king's control over the military, and the way elections and civil matters were handled - never resolved.

Germany's position as a crossroads didn't help - constant threats from east and west - the two-front concerns of World War I and II had existed for centuries based on real problems.  Keeping a large standing army was helpful for maintaining independence and influence, but downsides.

Recommended.  Gift from PJr/Nedda.

A Forgotten Empire, Vijayanagar - A Contribution to the History of India (Robert Sewell, 1900)

(291 pages)

Gift from Chris and Dharma.

Author was a British civil servant with interest in Indian history; his book pulls together information about a powerful empire in southern India named Vijayanagar which rose and fell from 1316 - 1614 (dates approximate); author also includes information from two Portuguese contemporaries who visited.

I learn that the main ruins are in a town (UNESCO site) named "Hampi" - it looks quite amazing on Google Earth.

Interesting on many levels.  For example - so much of the action is happening right around 1500 - close in time to Columbus, Martin Luther, Charles V - so much dramatic stuff happening simultaneously.

Much conflict between Islamic forces and Hindu forces - Islamic groups pushing down from the north; author speculates that Vijayanagar came together as southern India groups recognized the need to combine forces to fend off the threat from the north.

Also interesting - the Portuguese making their presence felt - while quite significant, I didn't get the impression that they were balance-tippers the way whites tended to operate in say Mexico and Peru.  Probably because the indigenous armies were so huge, or at least reported as such.

As with so many successful empires (or family businesses, for that matter) - dynamic, charismatic, successful leaders in the early going; then things start to slip.

The chroniclers (Islamic and Western both) report huge armies (complete with cavalry and elephants), temples, city walls, festivals - and admit a reader might be skeptical of the reported numbers - I wonder exactly how large these were.  Really large, I'd guess.  Certainly would require incredible organization, tax-collecting capability, wealth - even if numbers are somewhat exaggerated - to muster anywhere near the kind of forces described.  Whatever the facts, it must have been pretty impressive.

So much driven by religious differences - or perhaps just land/power grab by persons of a different religion?  Hard to tell where that line falls.

The quoted Muslim sources, and the English author - both tend to discuss Hindu practice in terms of heathens, idols, etc.  While describing religious practices (temples, fasting, dietary principles, feast-day celebrations, etc.) that in many cases would seem right at home in a Christian setting.

Very focused on kings and battles, also life at court.  A little more daily-life stuff would have been good.  But:  I liked it.

The Blank Slate - The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Steven Pinker, 2002)

(453 pages)

Book club selection (via Lon; session held 1 April 2018).

Pinker currently in the news in relation to a new book on the Enlightenment (which I've not read).  As one might expect, reactions seem to track political leanings.

I found this earlier book quite useful, quite interesting.  Author describes three beliefs that have taken root - the Blank Slate; the Noble Savage; the Ghost in the Machine.  Goes through the background of each, and how each has been adapted for various ends. I do catch myself relying, explicitly or implicitly, on all or elements of these three beliefs - perhaps the highest value of this kind of book is that it occasionally helps the reader to "catch" oneself when this happening.

Much of it is the "nature vs. nurture" discussion - for various reasons a large number of academics and politicians downplay the "nature" part - genes, heredity, whatever - he theorizes as to why so many cling so fiercely to viewpoints that defy common sense and what I think we can say is human experience.  All is not subjectivity!

I continue to believe that the notion of "original sin" seems basically correct.  Civilization is fragile.  Humans have overcome bad tendencies but those tendencies remain inside everyone, in varying mixtures.  (By "bad" I probably should say "techniques we evolved to deal with then-circumstances.")  It's a short step to regression.  The good news:  on the whole, progress has been impressively positive.

Something that strikes me:  it's very hard to definitively "know" anything (specifics of nature/nurture being one of many examples). We need to be super careful about how much we know or ever can know.  Much "science" is just surveys and group testing, ugh.  Replication failures abound.

We live in a strange era - where influence of genes, gender, etc. is aggressively denied - yet everyone knows it's there.  Denying or hiding data will backfire (may help explain 2016 election, for example) - yet "no-platforming" is spreading.  Oddly, the "party of science" halts discussion of race, gender, climate, etc.

Sometimes I think the oddly excessive feelings on these topics, the no-platforming, the public shaming of heretics, is new.  But then I think of Galileo; reading a Prussian history where 19th century students are behaving similarly; all the religious fighting over the centuries; live-and-let-live seems inexplicably difficult!

Something that is new: surfeit of what one commentator calls "Intellectuals Yet Idiots" - highly educated but nonproductive types - throughout history, societies weren't wealthy enough to maintain all that many IYIs - exceptions would be royal siblings, folks in monasteries - and it was hard for them to reach an audience in any event.  Now IYIs are everywhere; two main effects that will sustain the madness:

1. Colleges, and now governments and corporations - filled with Diversity Coordinators, and Rape Counselors, and Whatevers - their jobs depend upon emphasizing group differences and injustices.  (Of course there are plenty of historical and current injustices, but there also is an increasing cure-is-worse-than-the-disease problem.)

2. Folks needing to write a "new" thesis for PhD or whatever - a broken system, too many of them, often trying to stand out, no one ever has or will read these papers - but they are embedded in the academy.

Be gentle and of good cheer and keep conversing!

The Transylvanian Trilogy - Vol. II - They Were Found Wanting; Vol. III - They Were Divided (Miklos Banffy, 1934)

(830 pages)

I had read Volume I of this trilogy back in 2016; liked the final two volumes even a bit better.  My summary for Volume I actually work quite well for purposes of Volumes II and III; however, the action (certainly the political stakes) pick up as World War I nears.  

The story lines of course take place in the geographies where the incidents that kicked off the war occurred, so there's the run-up for that.  More discussion of Franz Ferdinand as heir apparent; he is presented as a conniver, quite unflattering.

The scenes taking place in Transylvania and Hungary are consistently interesting; the author also certainly must had a great feel for the era's politics.

The book is a great companion to the second of Patrick Leigh Fermor's books - he was visiting much the same geography, only in the 1930s.

Balint; his mother Roza; Adrienne; Pal Uzdy; Laszlo; many more.

Recommended

The White Nile (Alan Moorehead, 1983)

(307 pages)

The author makes all this come to life - I enjoyed this every bit as much as my initial read about 20 years ago. 

The book focuses on events along the upper Nile in the mid-19th century.  Many famous names are involved here, starting with Burton and Speke.  Later comes David Livingstone (biography here), Henry Morton Stanley (biography here), Samuel and Elizabeth Baker (story here), Charles Gordon (and the fall of Khartoum to the Mahdi); even Herbert Kitchener and Winston Churchill show up toward the end of the story (Omdurman, etc.)

Amazing that the interior of Africa remain largely unmapped well into the 19th century.  The search for the source of the Nile dated back to Herodotus and beyond.  These Victorian explorers finally solved the puzzle.

East-central Africa grievously affected by Arab slave traders in these days; at this time slavery was being outlawed in Britain and, eventually, the US; but the slave trade had a big impact upon the explorers. Sad stories of the Zanzibar slave markets.

Some effort to convert the natives to Christianity, but the main players seem much more driven by the urge to explore.

An interesting angle:  indirectly this is a story about Britain in the middle of the 19th century - at the peak of its powers - as in India (per discussions here) and elsewhere, not necessarily strategic or even intentional in where it ended up - but high-impact wherever it went in those days.  Many who spent years in foreign outposts ended up unable to stay away.

Britain's influence, or interference, of course not necessarily benign for the natives.

I really like this book, and stories about this topic in general.

The Discovery of France - A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War (Graham Robb, 2007)

(358 pages)

Book club selection (via me; session held 25 February 2018).

Originally read this eight years ago, the summary from back then remains on point.

The book is one of the highest value that I've run across in terms of generating ideas per unit.  It does give lots of interesting - and new - information specific to France.  Moreso, perhaps unintentionally, it gives a glimpse into daily lives of many people in the immediately pre-modern world - most of which would apply in France, or elsewhere. This part utterly fascinates.  Difficult to imagine a non-homogenized world - and so recent.  Where accumulating, and "getting ahead," wasn't even on the agenda for so many.

Also not the author's point - but it drives home how wealthy society has become. 

So much of what I believe or assume on various topics (not only France) is just wrong - this book is a useful reminder!

PJ reprised the cassoulet recipe . . . except it was even better this time around.

The City of Brass (S.A. Chakraborty, 2017)

(526 pages)

Book club selection (via NOC; session held 28 January 2018).

Book one of what's intended to be a trilogy.

Not necessarily my favorite style of book, but this had a lot going for it, and the author is skillful. 

I like that it was set in the Mideast (however defined); built around terms like "djinn" (described as something (or someone!) that an observant/sensitive human might occasionally see out of the corner of his/her eye - nice!); this takes the reader somewhere. 

Very good at drawing characters - avoided the all-good or all-evil trap; most were nicely nuanced.

Not a political novel, at least as far as I can tell - but a pretty sophisticated recounting of the kinds of pressures politicians face (and/or create/encourage!)

Nahri is the lead character - likable. 

Lots of magic - but presented in an interesting way - characters have to learn how to use it; some limits on duration/power; not just an elixir.

Forged Through Fire - War, Peace, and the Democratic Bargain (John Ferejohn and Frances McCall Rosenbluth, 2017)

(316 pages)

This book received really strong reviews and sounded really interesting, but I just didn't find it that compelling.  Not sure why.

The premise:  the more that a state needs to expand the size of its army, the more likely that the state will expand the franchise and otherwise function like a democracy.

Which makes sense - hard enough to whip up suckers recruits to prosecute the state's wars, so offering that sort of carrot might help.

Plenty of counter-examples, however.